Liberty and Power

Among libertarians and classical liberals, the name Richard Cobden
(1804–1865) evokes admiration and applause. His activities — and
successes — on behalf of freedom, free markets, and government
retrenchment are legendary. Most famously, he cofounded — with John
Bright — the Anti–Corn Law League, which successfully campaigned for
repeal of the import tariffs on grain. Those trade restrictions had made
food expensive for England’s working class while enriching the landed
aristocracy....Cobden’s legacy is much appreciated by
libertarians, but one aspect of it is largely unknown. (I only just
learned of it, thanks to my alert friend Gary Chartier.) Cobden’s third
daughter and fourth child, Emma Jane Catherine Cobden (later Unwin after
she married publisher Thomas Fisher Unwin), carried on his work. Born
in 1851, she was a liberal activist worthy of her distinguished father.